When I attending Chabot Jr. College in the Bay Area of California, I was trying to decide on an elective. I have always had a love affair with movies, and I saw in the catalog that there was a course, called "Movie Music". I thought that sounds pretty cool, I should check it out. To my surprise, I loved this class! I never really pontificated on how incredibly profound and important musical scores were to a film. After taking this course, I now pay very close attention to the musical score and soundtracks accompanied with a movie. A soundtrack for my standards is very much key to the pace and set up of the mood of a film. The music sets up emotional states, like tension in a horror film, or melodic love songs for a romance in a movie. So join me on musical journey for films.
Once upon a time in a "galaxy far, far away" I fell in love with movie soundtracks. It all started with the love song in which a caped super hero, Superman takes flight with Lois Lane into the night sky. The song is called, "Can You Read My Mind", and to this day, it still makes me tear up inside with its low then high crescendos and incredibly moving sound. The song was so absolutely appropriate to my favorite scene of
Superman (1978). At those moments, I too wanted my own "Superman" to fly me away into the sunset, and I was only 8 years old. This eloquent music was composed by the iconic American composer, John Williams. For this post, I want to take you to an element of film making that I would consider one of the most important to a film's cohesiveness - a film's musical score/soundtrack. I have three favorite movie soundtrack composer's that just so happen to start with the letter "J" and all three incidentally start with the name John. They are the prodigious, John Williams, John Barry, and John Carpenter.
The first composer, of course mentioned above, John Williams was born in 1932, whose father was jazz musician, Johnny Williams. He studied music at UCLA and Juilliard. Williams new from a very young age music would be his calling, since his father was also a drummer for
The Raymond Scott Quintet. At age 19 he had composed his first piano composition. He dons 41 Oscar nominations and 5 wins, 18 Grammy wins, and that is just the start of the multitude of awards this artist has achieved in his iconic career. His musicology includes such famous films as
Harry Potter Parts 1 and 2, Star Wars (George Lucas), just to name a few. He has collaborated with director Steven Spielberg on all of his films, except for 2, which includes more to William's lengthy list of musical soundtracks, such as themes in the most famous film
Jaws, whose music will always make you think of that infamous man eating great white shark, there is
Indiana Jones, Schindler's List, and his most recent
War Horse. Besides of course,
Superman, my other favorite film soundtracks are
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and
Jurassic Park, also Spielberg films. His music to me is epic and invokes such emotion, thus making a film that much more indelible and timeless. I really could go on and on about this composer and his awe-inspiring music.
"So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves, so it's gratifying to have something you have done linger in people's memories."
Here is a medley of Williams works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFNN_ADpYJ0
Another film composer, whom I adore is the music of John Barry (1933-2011). When I first discovered his music it was playing in the film,
Indecent Proposal (1993), starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore and directed by Adrian Lyne (
Fatal Attraction). It was the story about a rich man, who wants to sleep with a man's wife for one night to the "tune" of a million dollars. I enjoyed the film, but what really touched me was its soundtrack the accompanied it so sweetly with its beautiful melody from the piano. It was the first soundtrack cassette I had ever bought, besides
Grease, which is a vinyl. I remember playing this music over and over again in my college days to help me fall asleep, for it relaxed me that much.
He is the composer of over 111 movie titles, such as
Out of Africa, Diamonds are Forever, Dances with Wolves just to name a few.
Barry was around cinema in the beginnings of his life, for his father was a projectionist and owned several chains of cinema houses in Northern England. He was originally a classic pianist and formed his own band, called
The John Barry Seven and had a few hit records. Through his achievements working at various record labels, such as EMI, Barry was discovered by the producers of the film,
Mr. No, a James Bond film. He then produced the most famous score "The James Bond Theme" and had many years of collaboration with other Bond films that spanned over 25 years.
Barry has since won 5 Academy awards and 4 Grammy awards. One of which was for the film
Somewhere In Time and is one of my other favorites by him.The music and film industry lost an incredible artist when Barry died January, 2011, but his legacy will certainly continue to live on and be timeless.
Here is an article on Mr. Barry and some of his musical scores:
http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/news_events/features/2011/020211.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERB-r39Cge8
Last but certainly not least of the three composers is my favorite, John Carpenter, the master of horror scores. Not only is Carpenter the creator of horror soundtracks, he is also a director and writer of that genre. I first heard his music when it was playing during a movie trailer for his iconic film,
Halloween (1978). In the scene Michael Myers (iconic serial killer) was stalking his sister, Laurie Strode, played by scream queen, Jamie Lee Curtis. I remember the music being so completely eerie and accompanied the scenes so appropriately and is one of my most beloved horror films. I was hooked and extremely jealous of my cousins, who were going to see the film that night, but I was too young to go see it. I have since seen this film a multitude of times and it never fails to scare and creep the hell out of me, besides,
The Ring (US version). Sometimes even during non-Halloween times, I will get the score in my head and not be able to get it out for hours. It is the most famous score by Carpenter. He has 12 wins and 15 nominations for his films, such as Critics Awards for
Halloween and The Fog.
John Carpenter was born in 1948 in Carthage, New York. Carpenter created films in 8mm before even entering high school. He was a student at Western Kentucky University, where his father was the head of the music department. And he also attended USC Film School in Los Angeles. Carpenter was also in his own band Coupe de Villes which included directors Tommy Lee Wallace and Nick Castle. His first short film which was discovered in the archives at USC in 2011 was called Captain Voyeur, which would interestingly reveal elements of his film
Halloween. Which interestingly enough Carpenter made $10,000 from his famous creation
Halloween.
Official trailer of
Halloween:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljchb1tsLfs
Some of Carpenter's famous films...
The Fog (1980), Escape From New York (1981) The Thing (1982), Escape From New York (1981), The Prince of Darkness (1987) just to name a few.
Here is a little trivia about Carpenter:
His name is in front of the titles of all his films.
He was married to Adrienne Barbeau, who was in his film,
The Fog.
He turned down the opportunity to direct
Top Gun and Fatal Attraction.
In the 5th addition of "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", two of his films are listed:
Halloween and The Thing.
Famous quotes from Carpenter:
"We're a violent country. We always have been. We embrace our individuality and our violence."
"I can play just about any keyboard but I cannot read or write any note."
As you can see, I really enjoy these particular sound track and score creators of film. The score is to me is one of the most important aspects, and ingredient of any film, except of course in a silent one. I am saddened that Mr. John Barry passed away, he is being missed in the film industry, I am sure. So when you are viewing any film, take a listen to the music being played along, to me, it really makes or breaks a film. I hope that this blog entry will pique your interest in the music of film.
